Hideki found that he actually enjoyed sailing. He had spent every waking hour of every day pointing the ship towards their destination, and other than the merchant ship they had attacked, it had been a pretty peaceful leg of their journey. It was the middle of the night and he followed the constellations as the fisherman had shown him while he had worked on their vessel. It was relaxing to just watch the gentle swells of the ocean as they soldiered on in the darkness. All this time at sea had given him a lot of time to think about things and himself.

He reflected on the life he had led before being forced into doing vile things for Megumi, and realized that if he looked at himself objectively, he hadn't been a very good person either. He had been an adventurer, who on the surface tried to do good, but unlike many of his fellow guild members, he was in it for purely selfish reasons. Hideki had also been quite the womanizer if he had to admit it to himself, but he couldn't make himself regret that for whatever reason.

His thoughts drifted to Megumi, and what he thought of her. To his great surprise, he found that he didn't hate her quite as much as he initially had. Honestly, he had been better off so far as an undead than alive. He was going nowhere fast in that guild and he had already become so much stronger by being with Megumi. Doing evil things paid in dividends, that was for certain. Sure, he had to do vile things, but he was becoming numb to most of that. Am I seriously starting to become like her? I don't want to become a monster myself, but then again, other than the farmer, didn't a lot of the people we've killed deserve it? He shook his head vehemently against that line of thought. Is Megumi really just a force of evil or is there more to her? Why does she keep that children's book and the photo inside it? Would a true monster care about their own family?

His musings were cut off when he heard a splash and then something hit the deck of the ship. He ran to see what was happening and saw that there were dozens of creatures jumping out of the water and onto the ship. They were green, scaled, things with solid black eyes, and they were covered with spikes. The monsters let out a hissing noise and proceeded to attack anything near them on the boat.

Hideki commanded the undead to fight and yelled for Megumi to come to the deck. Rather than waiting for her to show up, he drew his sword and attacked the closest amphibious creature. It had been occupied with killing one of the undead pirates and he stabbed his blade into it from behind. The scales gave quite a bit of resistance, but they were no match for his enchanted blade. The monster turned black, and as it died it puffed up like a blowfish, and then exploded, sending green goop all over the place.

The goop, unfortunately, turned out to be corrosive. His skin burned where it had landed on him and what was worse, the deck seemed to be being eaten away.

You have been hit with Corrosive Goo!

You suffer from burns!

-30 HP

Fuck! These things are going to sink the damned ship! Hideki ran towards the next foe and performed the same basic strategy. This time, when it started to puff up, he didn't just stare at it like an idiot; He kicked the thing with all his strength and managed to send it flying back over the edge of the ship into the water.

You suffer from burns!

-30 HP

Fucking burns! The undead pirates were holding their own against the beasts so far, and he directed them to be sure to kick them off the ship before they exploded. The monsters weren't strong for the most part, but the damage they posed to the ship made this situation serious.

"Poro-tan, what in the blazes are you waking Megu up in the middle of the night for?!"

"See for yourself. I'm kind of busy killing exploding fish monsters!" he replied through gritted teeth as he dodged one of the things that had been lunging for him. Megumi didn't join the fight, probably because all she could really do was blow holes into their boat, which was the exact opposite of what they needed to do.

You suffer from burns!

-30 HP

He and the other undead quickly dispatched over a dozen of the creatures when there was a huge splash in front of him. Another monster, a gigantic version of the things they were already fighting, jumped onto the boat. Upon closer inspection he could see that the smaller versions of the thing were attached all around it like armor. The little ones were popping free and coming onto the deck.

What the hell! Things can never just go easy, can they? At least he had finally stopped taking damage from the goop that got onto his arm. That shit was definitely bad news. He concentrated for a moment and unleashed a shockwave from his cursed blade at the creature. It was headed straight for his intended target when two of the smaller ones jumped into the pathway of the blast, sacrificing themselves to save the large one from taking any damage.

They popped and sent more corrosive goo all over the deck. Damn it! I hate these things! A ball of green flame flew over his head from the helm and smashed into the large beast which let out a screech of pain. Instantly every one of the smaller creatures stopped fighting with their targets and rushed towards the stairs leading up to Megumi.

Hideki and the undead pirates moved to intercept the enraged monsters and held them off while Megumi fired blast after blast at the giant one. It reared up onto two legs and spat a glob of goo the size of a melon towards Megumi at incredible speed. Three of the undead pirates simultaneously dropped dead as this happened, and the goop slammed into a shimmering barrier. She just sacrificed three of our crew just so she could make that shield?

Megumi continued to barrage the enemy boss monster while they finished off the small ones and tossed them overboard. The damage to the deck wasn't severe so far, but they had to deal with the big one now. Hideki charged towards the large beast, which was somehow still alive despite being pelted by 7 or 8 green fireballs, and he unleashed another shockwave attack.

This time there wasn't anything to block the blow and it ripped into their enemy, cursing it as he had hoped. It howled in rage and charged him, swiping with its giant webbed foot. He had been too slow and it connected. Hideki went flying through the air and smashed into the railing on the side of the ship. Grumbling, he got back to his feet and charged in again.

The monster sprayed that goop towards him as he got close and he had to roll to the side to avoid being completely covered by the stuff. The stuff bubbled and sizzled in front of him and the beast advanced towards him again. How much fucking health does this thing have?!

The next time the monster swiped for him he dodged and sliced into it and spun underneath the torso of the thing. He flipped his blade upward and stabbed into the beast's belly. His sword went in all the way to the hilt and the thing thrashed above him. He pulled the blade out and stabbed it repeatedly. The gigantic thing began to swell up like the small ones had. Fuck! I have to get it off the ship! Right now!

Twenty of the undead pirates came to his aid in an instant and with effort, they all shoved the thing overboard before it popped. He sat down on the deck, amazed that they had managed to come out of this mess in one piece. *Ding*

Congratulations! You have reached level 17!

+1 TP

After a moment of regaining his composure, he looked around the deck and saw that the goop had been evaporating as it did its nasty work. That was actually a good thing, otherwise it would have continued eating through the ship until they sank. There were some sizable holes in the deck at this point, but the vessel still seemed to hold its integrity.

"Get the place cleaned up, Poro-tan. Megu is going back to sleep! Megu can't fucking wait to get to dry land!"

She marched back off towards her cabin without another word and slammed the door behind her. Hideki ground his teeth in frustration and had the undead pirates do as she asked while he went back to the helm. They hadn't gotten too far off course during the fight and he quickly set them back on the correct path.

Two days later they finally set eyes on what was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen, the city of Oleander sprawled out across the shore and even from a distance he could see the buildings were tall and rectangular, featuring many different colors. What was truly beautiful, however, wasn't the city, but the mountains behind it. They were covered in green and they stretched far into the clouds. We actually made it!

Hideki pointed the ship towards the docks and when they got close enough to the city they took one of the smaller escape boats and headed to shore, leaving the battered pirate ship and its crew behind.

Spoiler: Hideki's Stats Name Hideki (Poro-kun) Level 017 (11,668/13,655 EXP to next Level) Class Warrior HP 750/750 MP 50/50 TP 1 Adventurer Rank C Attributes Vitality 28 Magic 2 Endurance 23 Magic Resistance 5 Strength 21 Luck 6 Agility 13 Dexterity 15 Passive Skills • Warrior's Essence - Level 3 (+30 HP regeneration/min)

• Sword Mastery - Level 5 (+50% proficiency with swords)

• Tiger Style - Level 1

• Turtle Style - Level 2

• Stalwart - Level 1 (+5% natural defense)

• Fortify Health - Level 1 (+50 HP) Active Skills • Holy Blade - Level 1 (Envelope blade in holy aura for 15 seconds)

• Shockwave - Level 2 (Release shockwave from blade) Spoiler: Megumi's Stats Name Megumi Level 019 (17,460/17,528 EXP to next Level) Class Necromancer HP 375/375 MP 800/850 TP 0 Villain Rank C Attributes Vitality 15 Magic 60 Endurance 9 Magic Resistance 42 Strength 5 Luck 14 Agility 6 Dexterity 9 Passive Skills • Mage's Essence - Level 4 (+120 MP regeneration/min) Active Skills • None Necromancer Magic

• Sanguine Infusion (50 MP) - Level 9 (Absorb life essence of recently deceased, 9% chance to gain +1 TP from human victims)

• Corpse Explosion (30 MP) - Level 6 - (+60% damage from explosion)

• Corpse Absorption (10 MP) - Level 1 (Absorb a corpse's essence. Recover 80 MP)

• Raise Undead (20 MP) - Level 10 (Raise weak undead to fight for you. Max: 50)

• Soul Trap (350 MP) - Level 1 (Trap soul of a recently defeated foe. Max: 1)

• Spirit Barrier (100 MP) - Level 1 (Erect a barrier using souls of the dead for fuel. Blocks spells and projectiles)

• Eldritch Blast (75 MP) - Level 11 (Unleashes a roiling ball of Eldritch energy that burns its subject on contact for 5 seconds